Flight
by WriterPatriot
Summary: Qrow has never considered himself good at offering comfort. What does he do when 12-year-old Ruby feels hopeless after a bad first day at Signal? (One-Shot)


**Opening A/N: Takes place about three years before Volume 1.**

 _Flight_

Quietly unlocking the door, the shrouded figure drew himself up to his full height. The residents of the quiet house had no idea of what was coming. Without any further hesitation, he flung the door open. "Ta-da!" yelled Qrow.

Taiyang laughed nervously and nearly dropped the carrot he had been chopping. Suddenly, a yellow projectile erupted from the family room couch and wrapped two crushing arms around Qrow's stomach. "What are you doing here?!" asked an ecstatic Yang.

Qrow rested his arms against the 14-year-old's back and jokingly retorted, "Thought I'd drop by, give you girls a talk about the birds and the-"

" _Qrow,"_ Taiyang cut in.

The immature Huntsman raised both his hands. "Alright, alright, take it easy, Tai," then chuckled under his breath, "still can't take a joke."

Taiyang grimaced, doing his best not to validate the argument.

Qrow finally explained, "It was Ruby's first day at Signal today, right? Thought I'd come congratulate her."

"Awwwwwww…" Yang extrapolated. Qrow did his best not to blush.

Taiyang had shifted from annoyance to worry. "Yang, where _is_ Ruby?" He turned to Qrow and joked in spite of everything, "Usually, she'd be all over you by now."

 _Must have been a rough day for her,_ Qrow mused internally. "I'll check out back," Qrow volunteered.

This startled Taiyang, and he took on a look of fierce internal debate. He started to say "I'll come with you…" but then trailed off in defeat. "I'll… search out front."

Qrow left through the back door, noticing Taiyang collapse into the couch, his head in his hands in frustration. Qrow wasn't concerned that Ruby was missing. He knew exactly where to look.

The clifftop holding the grave of Summer Rose had been Ruby's sanctuary ever since the little family had gotten the tragic news. As Qrow drew close to the clearing, he noticed a single, freshly picked rose laying on the rectangle of bare earth. _Found you,_ he whispered.

"All right, kiddo, I know you're in here," Qrow teased gently. He circled the gravestone and scanned the thick brush at the base of each clump of trees. He sat down next to the stone and pulled out his flask, but quickly put it away when he remembered how much Ruby hated the smell. A vague rustling of autumn leaves was his only answer. Just when he began to genuinely worry for Ruby's safety and stood up to search again, he heard a tiny, swollen voice whisper, "Y-you're looking the wrong way."

The Huntsman spun around and finally noticed a tearful Ruby perched on a low tree branch. She clumsily ran toward him, her red cape and a few rose petals from her developing Semblance trailing her. She tripped into his surprised embrace. "Hi," she whispered shyly into the stomach of Qrow's Huntsman jacket. Qrow rubbed her narrow back gently. " _What did they do to her?"_ He silently asked himself in mounting rage. Sensing his anger, the girl whimpered and tried to pull back. Regret washing over him, Qrow held onto her and did his best to calm himself. As he breathed deeply, Ruby's muscles relaxed. "Rough day?" Qrow asked, mentally cursing how emotions always broke his voice's tone. Ruby buried her head deeper into his jacket in shame. Slipping his thumb under her chin, he raised her eyes to meet his. Her silver eyes were brimming with moisture, threatening to cascade down at the slightest movement. "Y-y-yeah…" Ruby sniffled, letting several fat tears roll down her face. "I was so excited for today. I've wanted to go to Signal for so long..."

 _Ruby clung to Yang's hand. Her older sister was as happy and outgoing as ever, a far cry from Ruby's obvious nervousness. The two were walking up the stairs into Signal Academy's main hall when Yang's massive group of friends surrounded them. Despite her fear, Ruby tried as hard as she could to introduce herself and keep close to Yang, but eventually, she lost her grip and Yang and her friends disappeared with only a quickly-fading "Good luck, Ruby!" over her shoulder. Hurt by the perceived rejection but far from spent, Ruby raced through the building to reach her first session, which was a chance for the first-year students to familiarize themselves with wielding several different forms of weaponry. What followed was nothing more than a string of crushing disappointments. Each wooden replica weapon proved to be perfectly innocuous in Ruby's hands. The war-hammer was way too heavy. Her hands and arms threatened to buckle under the weight of a sword and shield. The recoil of the pistol nearly broke her wrist; they had to force-activate her Aura to be able to keep her in school for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, this drained the energy she could have used to penetrate targets with bladed weapons. Even a replica of a prototypical Ember Celica, a one of a kind concept created by Yang, proved undesirable. Her fists just felt caged and weighted down._

 _The basic academics turned out alright. Still motivated, Ruby demolished every math problem and sliced through every essay. She refused to let the teachers think of her as some random slacker. For a moment, she forgot the stress of the previous class periods and focused on her skills as a budding weapons designer. Even the thought that she was currently unable to wield her own designs wasn't any more than a minor annoyance. However, it was the last class of the day that truly broke her. Hand-to-Hand Technique Part 1: Weaponless._

 _Barefoot and bare-handed, the first-year class paired off and dueled. It was the school's intent that everyone was a beginner, but that didn't do a thing for Ruby. Those who had snickered at her hopelessness with weapons were now laughing hysterically as each warrior in turn faced off against her and reliably pinned her in under a minute. Broken-hearted, Ruby left as soon as possible without being penalized, sitting on the steps outside the school's door until Yang came to take her home._

Qrow took Ruby's tiny hand in his and led her over to the edge. The two sat down and stared into the distance. Pausing to compose himself, Qrow began slowly, "Okay, kid. You had a rough day. It happens to everyone. And I'm sad to say that this won't be your last. It's a tough world out there."

Ruby nodded and whispered, "Uh huh…"

"Here's what you do. Tomorrow, you've gotta go back. No child of Team STRQ is a quitter," he quipped. "Even if you have nothing else at the moment, you have potential. But until tomorrow, you need to take care of yourself, and find some way to distract yourself."

From around the lump in her throat, Ruby lamented, "L-Learning to be a Huntress has been the only thing on my mind for so long. It's hard to distract myself from that… What do you do when you feel like this?"

Qrow smiled sadly. "I've lost track of all the ways I've tried. I've felt that way more times than anyone ever should. Usually," he patted the breast pocket which held his flask, "I've made bad choices. Don't look up to me too fondly, kid."

Ruby peered into his eyes and caught sight of a mischievous spark. Qrow was hiding something, and she needed to find it.

Qrow noticed Ruby's heartbreak morph into determination, and he threw up his hands. "No, bad idea," he told himself.

"Ooh, what is it?" Ruby couldn't help but ask. After all, Qrow would never try to hurt her.

"Well…" he lowered his voice mischievously. "How would you like to fly?"

Ruby's gaze soured. "Don't make jokes! You were tempted to suggest something, I know it," she playfully accused.

"I'm dead serious. Have you ever wanted to fly?"

It was a definitely a rare sight, but Ruby knew a serious Qrow when she heard one. She nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay," Qrow muttered urgently, with a priceless look of excitement on his face. "But you can't tell anyone. _Especially_ not your dad. Think you're up to that?"

"You know it!"

"I've never tried carrying this much extra weight, but he always said it was possible…" he muttered.

"What?"

Qrow brushed the question off with a "Never mind. Just stand in front of me, and let me do the rest." Ruby confusedly stepped in front of Qrow, who drew himself up close behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach. Then, they jumped, with Qrow holding Ruby tightly against him.

Ruby failed to comprehend what happened next. Qrow's calloused, muscular arms suddenly became soft as silk. _"Not silk,"_ Ruby corrected herself, " _down feathers!"_ The feeling spread, and Ruby could feel herself shrinking until she felt like a chick nestled tightly against a mother hen. That "hen" was Qrow.

Ruby burst out laughing and yelled "Qrow, are we… a _crow?"_ She found herself not yelling, but thinking as hard as she could. Suddenly, Qrow's thoughts responded. Within the single crow, the two shared some form of mental link.

"Certainly haven't heard that one before," he mumbled with a grimace Ruby could feel.

"Sorry!" she replied innocently, still laughing. "It's just so funny! Whoever would have thought my Uncle Qrow could actually become a _Crow!"_

"Forget about it, pipsqueak. Now I didn't bring you up here to be mocked. Watch where we're going."

Ruby gasped as she saw through the crow's eyes. She could see their cabin, the Cliffside Forest and even the distant towers of Beacon Academy, her dream to end all dreams, in the capital of Vale! Unlike riding an airship, she could almost feel the wind against her face, and she could look down without the floor in the way. Most importantly, she had her very own pilot controlling all of the bird's actions.

Qrow was thrilled. His usual personality and surprisingly routine way of life while questing often prohibited him from flying for pleasure. These aspects of his lifestyle after resigning from teaching at Signal always masked how much he truly loved flight. Witnessing his passenger Ruby's utter curiosity and amazement didn't hurt, either. He found himself enjoying this flight more than he had ever enjoyed the others.

Ruby wanted it to go on forever. All her troubles seemed so far away. She hardly even winced when she caught sight of Signal. With how small it appeared, what could it do to her? "Wooohoooo!" She screamed into her thoughts. Qrow cursed under his breath, and the crow the two shared squawked in alarm and faltered in flight. Ruby giggled as the bird bobbed up and down, recovering its balance. "Oh, you liked that? Time for some _real_ fun," Qrow challenged. Then, he pulled in his wings and performed a near-vertical dive. The dizzily-circling ground swelled in size with every passing second. For a brief moment, Ruby felt fear. Then, when she could nearly smell the turf, the crow opened its wings and shot upward. Ruby sighed in relief and joy.

After a solid 15 minutes of aerobatics, banked curves, sightseeing, and, per Ruby's request, one more spiraling dive, Qrow passed low over the clifftops. Beating his wings at a steep angle to hover in place, he reversed the transformation. The sleek black bird became an uncle tightly holding his niece, and the two aviators touched down in the same little clearing. Qrow broke the silence first, smirking but contentedly assuring Ruby, "And that's that."

"I-I'll never forget this," Ruby whispered, hugging him as hard as she could. "Thanks for coming, and for finding me, and… for everything."

Qrow smiled and ruffled her hair like he always did. "Just… act surprised if I ever do that again, alright?"

"Deal," Ruby nodded vigorously, promising that Qrow's ability would be their special little secret. Suddenly, the pain reappeared in her eyes. "But what about Signal?"

Qrow laid a hand on her shoulder and answered, "Remember your dream. If everyone in the world was more like you, we'd have things a lot easier. The world wants what you can give it, Ruby. And as for those weapons teachers…" Qrow trailed off for a second. Ruby could almost _hear_ him thinking over his next words. Having reached some conclusion, he spoke with the most sincerity Ruby had ever heard out of him. "If they didn't try handing you a scythe, it's time for this dusty old Qrow to come out of retirement."

 **Closing A/N: Wow, I never really thought I'd be so happy with this. Tell me what you all thought of my first RWBY fic! Special thanks to Faulty Paragon, who unlocked my RWBY-fic-writing-Semblance with inspiration and great encouragement. All I want is to do my best for my fellow RWBY fans!**


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